Goodbye Janette and Jason

Before I get into my shock and dismay over the loss of Janette, I thought I would run down the evening, as I have many comments about the 100th episode. First, it was great to see all of those past dancers in the audience. I wish this could have been a two hour show so that they could have showcased each of the past 4 season's top 20 a little better. The video montage was so fast and chopped up that I really didn't get to see any one dancer long enough. Let's start at the beginning:



OPENING NUMBER
"One," A Chorus Line
(Contemporary, Mia Michaels)
I am still not sure how I feel about this routine. The dancers were a little on the crazy side, with those maniacal smiles and sharp movements. I appreciated that Mia was making a dated piece current with her choreography, but it was a little too much commotion on that little stage. And those smiles scared me.

THE NUMBER OF THE NIGHT
Katie Holmes - "Get Happy"
WTF? Are you kidding me? After months of hype, this was the big "dance"? My Mom said if she was going to lip-sync anyway, she might have asked them to use a real singer's voice, since hers was not so great. Ouch. Did you get the feeling Judy Garland's son couldn't wait to get out of there and grab a beer? Where do we start. It wasn't live. This would be my biggest issue. The outdoor section that was filmed seemed to have nothing to do with the choreography and performance that was on the stage. Besides revealing that motherhood hasn't robbed her of her nice legs and butt cheeks (which we saw more of than her face), Mrs. Cruise was a pretty large letdown. I would have much rather watched Benji and Danielle's Broadway, Danny and Lacy's Samba, Katee and Joshua's Hip Hop or Neil and Sabra's table dance. Yikes. I still can't believe it.


DANCE ENCORES FROM SEASONS PAST
Jaimie Goodwin & Hokuto "Hok" Konishi
"The Chairman's Waltz," Memoirs of a Geisha (Wade Robson)
Just as it was when these two very different dancer's unveiled it 2 seasons ago, this routine was beautiful.It captured both Jaimie and Hok's strength's without exposing any lack of training on Hok's end.

Heidi Groskreutz & Travis Wall
"Calling You," Celine Dion (Mia Michaels)
This piece was one of my all time favorites from season two, and although I am not sure that it had the exact same energy as it did during that first viewing, I still appreciated and enjoyed this story. Mia is the resident prop queen and her use of the bench in this routine was almost as important as how she utilized her dancers. Travis is an amazing technician and Heidi brought an innocence and a rawness that was as special tonight as it was back then. I only wish that it had been a live performance.

WADE, AND OTHERS WITH MAKE UP RENDERING THEM UNRECOGNIZABLE
"Ramalama (Bang Bang)," Roisin Murphy (Wade Robson)
I absolutely loved this routine when it was first performed in season two. Apparently I didn't love it as much as the cameraman loved Wade Robson. Good Lord, can you put the camera on somebody else please? I am trying to recognize some of my favorite former dancers here! Oh well, it's already over and all I picked out was Danielle, Heidi and Allison.

BOTTOM FOUR DANCERS
Kayla Radomski

Jason Glover

Janette Manrara

Brandon Bryant

Wait a minute-did you say Brandon??? What the heck happened here??

GOODBYE JANETTE AND JASON
As soon as Brandon was announced to be in the bottom two, we all knew it was over for poor Jason. I apparently completely underestimated Evan's fan base when making my predictions. Jason has a great dance career ahead of him, and I can't wait to see him on the tour.
I am totally sad that Janette left before Kayla. I feel like we just lost all of the passion and soul from this competition and we are left with empty steps. I completely acknowledge that technically Kayla is the better dancer, but for me she can't hold a candle performance-wise to Janette. Kayla could have never brought to that tango what Janette did two weeks ago, and I think if Kayla makes the top four, it will not be as entertaining as it could have been if Janette had made it there. I was glad that Nigel acknowledged that America got it wrong and that it ruined the 100th episode for him because I felt the same way.
Let's hope for some decent choreography next week. Only two weeks left my friends and we will crown a winner!